URBS 661—Long-Range & Strategic Planning


Community Profile for Envision 2020

As a class, you will prepare and rehearse a 20 minute (maximum) PowerPoint presentation, which you will deliver to the stakeholders at the next Envision 2020 meeting (February 16, 6-9PM, at Midwest Wireless Civic Center).

 

Initially, you will each research available data for the Mankato area for one of the following topical areas:

 

Economic Data

·        Major employers & clusters

·        Economic activity & indicators

o       Earnings

o       Wages

o       Purchases

o       Base multiplier (by industry)

·        Employment data

o       Job skills & types

o       Unemployment rates

o       Prevailing wage rate (by sector?)

·        Investment

o       Bank deposits

o       Community reinvestment activity

o       Venture capital

 

Population Characteristics

·        Demographics

o       Age distribution

o       Ethnic/racial diversity

o       Immigration

·        Quality of Life

o       Per capita income

o       Poverty level

o       Fixed income

·        Housing

o       Average price

o       Average rent

o       Percent affordable (own & rent)

·        Children

o       Children in poverty

o       Cost & availability of childcare

·        Education

o       Kindergarten readiness

o       School enrollment

o       Ethnic diversity (students/teachers)

o       HS graduation rate

o       Higher education enrollment

o       Adult literacy

·        Health Indicators

o       Birthrates & deathrates

o       Cardiac disease & diabetes rates

o       Health care expenditures

o       Health club memberships (YMCA, private)

·        Crime

o       Property crime rates

o       Violent crime rates

o       Juvenile crime rate

o       Underage alcohol consumption

o       Drug abuse

 

Environment & Community Institutions

·        Land use (current & projected)

·        Environmental Indicators

o       Water & sewer (consumption & capacity)

o       Energy consumption

o       Air quality

o       Water quality (surface & ground water)

o       Recycling & solid waste

·        Transportation

o       Vehicle miles traveled

o       Average daily commute

o       Public transportation

o       Highways

·        Tourism & Recreation

o       Tourism rates

o       Bike & walking trails

o       Parks budgets & acres

o       % land use in parks/designated open space

·        Community Facilities

o       Community Services participation

o       Library use (circulation & card holders)

o       Other community facilities

·        Voter participation

 

    Additional Data Series:

·        Statewide trends

·        National trends

·        Previous Citizen Surveys

·        United Way data

 

   Possible Ratios

·        Energy/$income

·        Hrs. worked/basic income

·        % jobs @ livable wage

·        Diversity of mfg & industry

 

You will need to agree on several issues of data measurement:

·        What aerial units will be used for aggregating the data?

·        How will the measures will be reported (#?  %?  Ratio?)

·        If ratios, what divisors will be used?

 

Once the data are assembled, you will need to decide which to display, how to display them, and develop the script for the PowerPoint.  You might also want to create a “technical appendix” to accompany the PowerPoint presentation (this could be on paper or online).

 


MSU

© 2006 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised 24 January 2006